Hanako: Honor & Blade – Beta Sign Up

Hanako: Honor & Blade is an impressive new multiplayer third person sword-based combat game in which Kenshi, Samurai, Archers and Ninjas do battle in Feudal Japan with an aim of bringing peace and unity to the country.

Throughout Hanako: Honor & Blade’s campaign players fight across four different game modes – Deathmatch, Capture the Informant, Village and Assassination. There are six classes of warrior to choose from, each with unique skills, weapons and fighting styles, from the sneaky Ninja to the blade wielding Samurai.

The campaign takes place across Feudal Japan, with players doing battle in a ‘tug-of-war’ system across multiple maps and game modes, ending at one of the teams castles as one side defends the Emperor and the other attempts to kill him. At the start of each match you can customize your skills set with a choice of powerful combos and elite master skills that can cause serious damage on the battlefield. At any point in the battle players can also go rogue and form a third team, even accepting ‘payments’ from other players for their services in battle.

The combat system is the heart of Hanako: Honor & Blade, with the game encouraging players to use precision and timing to target your opponent’s weaknesses rather than mindless button mashing hack n’ slash gameplay. Your surroundings also play a major part in the battles, with the likes of Archers getting a better view from the top of towers or forested areas providing cover for players to sneak through.

Hanako: Honor & Blade impresses with it’s unique take on multiplayer combat that weaves the battles into an ongoing campaign and also with it’s skilful and tactical combat system that looks set to offer plenty of depth. Sword swinging multiplayer combat well worth slicing into.